borderlands 2 hates single player?

[crimsonshrouds]

I'm playing borderlands 2 on the second play through an it just hates me playing alone. I'm guessing they expect you to have a team of four people to get through this second time. The game prides itself on saying the player is a badass but the badass enemies put you down in almost one hit.

I'm not one to complain about difficulty, within reason. The problem is almost all enemies take down your shield in a few seconds and all the badasses have stupidly long health bars that borderline fucking pointlessness. I didn't notice these problems on the first play through but now I'm just about to give up on this game.

When i drop 8 grenades on an enemy i expect them to die especially after i coat them in slag. Not Doc Mercy, who then one hits me with his grenade. This happened twice before I put down my controller, and got away from my TV before I did something stupid.

I do not feel like I'm a badass in this like i did in the first borderlands game. Now I feel like i'm wasting my time in pursuit of guns that are the only ones worth a damn only to still lose against a guy because I don't have three other guys wielding the best guns in the game as well.

Agree/disagree? Similar experience?

Edit 1- The character i was using when I was fighting Doc Mercy was Zero lvl 39

Skill tree sniping [5 Headshot] [8 killer] [1 bore] [5 velocity] skill tree cunning [5 fast hands] [5 fearless] [5 rising shot] [3 innervate]

I also have a siren i just gave up on playing as after getting wasted too many times.

My lvl 41 commando who is the only one i can play but it feels like i rely too heavily on dropping two turrets with phalanx shields to survive most battles

 

[Dracthor]

Once I got some better gear I wasn't getting stomped as bad, but I do agree that difficulty jump is high. I too turned off the game and left the room because I became skag bait so many times I lost half of my tons of money. I started buying whatever I could out of the venders because even the whites were better than my oranges from the first playthrough. If you want to power through it then go for it, If not then at least you had fun up till now (I hope).
Whatever your choice good luck and happy gaming.

 

[mParadox]

Well first time around, it is hard. Then you realize that you need to tweak your skill trees a bit.

Make them more offensive or defensive, depending on your character.

And also, critical hits. Always aim for critical hits. That way everyone goes down without a fight.

Unless you're Axton or Gaige, in which case you can rest easy and let the turret/Deathtrap clear the room for you. ._.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I agree. The game is not well balanced for solo play. It usually just ends up being a never ending chain of going down, second wind, down, second wind.. Ad infinitum. Problem being of course that enemies have so much damn health on the second play-through so you can never get the second wind.

 

[omega 616]

Quite a simple problem to get over.

Go to play through 1, kill the warrior till you level up once (kill him, save and exit, kill again), then go back to play through 2.

1 level in borderlands is a lot, it can be the difference between an easy time and rage inducing.

I wouldn't do more than 1 or 2 levels though, as that is when things get too easy.

Doing this also means you get 99 eridium and loads of money from cash drops and loot

 

[an annoyed writer]

I had a similar problem with my game. I usually play as Maya though, and as RTSnab said, she's pretty underpowered in situations with a lot of enemies. Of course it cleared up a tad when I got some better guns, but not by much (I've got an entire arsenal full of Legendary, E-Tech, and Seraph weapons and I still get my ass handed to me in many cases). My mechro and soldier are usually steamroller mode though. Maybe it's because my Siren is built as a team player while my other classes are better suited for solo play, but even when I'm using them I occasionally find myself in bouts of controller-chucking frustration.

 

[Launcelot111]

Single player Borderlands 2 is brutal in general, I find. Playing as the Siren, I legitimately couldn't beat the warrior without being cheap (and by cheap, I mean climbing some scaffolding outside the Warrior's arena and shooting the top of his head with an acid pistol for half an hour). Now, in my second playthrough, I just barely got by the Warden, but badass psychos still take at least 10 sniper rifle criticals to kill. I respect hard games, but all in all, Borderlands 2 just seems unfair at times. I also think it's a semi-major flaw of the series that most skill trees won't start showing their greatness until you're already done with your first playthrough, as my Maya build was nigh-useless in many cases until I got the mind control power.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Single player Borderlands 2 is brutal in general, I find. Playing as the Siren, I legitimately couldn't beat the warrior without being cheap (and by cheap, I mean climbing some scaffolding outside the Warrior's arena and shooting the top of his head with an acid pistol for half an hour). Now, in my second playthrough, I just barely got by the Warden, but badass psychos still take at least 10 sniper rifle criticals to kill. I respect hard games, but all in all, Borderlands 2 just seems unfair at times. I also think it's a semi-major flaw of the series that most skill trees won't start showing their greatness until you're already done with your first playthrough, as my Maya build was nigh-useless in many cases until I got the mind control power.

I have to chime in, especially where the Siren is concerned. Once I maxed out the Reaper skill and outfitted her with some sort of Class Mod that increased Reaper, she was beastly in all aspects. Even more so once I had both Ruin and Convergence learned. Also, I've spec'd her out to deal TONS of elemental damage. Most enemies don't stand a chance. However, I should note that I've never experimented with the Mind Control ability. Perhaps one day...

The Gunzerker is currently having some issues, as his damage and ammo regen with his left gun is Gunzerk mode is glitched and not the good kind of glitch, either. Still, he's an essential for his ammo regen abilities. I haven't had too many problems with him aside from that, both solo and with friends.

The Commando was my first choice playing BL2 single player; mainly because I loved playing Roland from the first game. When I got to level 42 and had Phalanx Shield, Gemini Turret and Scorched Earth learned, everything I encountered suddenly hated life. Safe to say, if BL2 hates single player as you claim, it sure doesn't hate the Commando in that regard.

Zero, however, is quite tricky to get used to. If you're an expert at dealing critical damage, then most everything outside of Rabid Stalkers and Rabid Skags will fall quite easily. Even when dealing with said enemies, his Deception skill proves invaluable at those times - to prove a point, I one-shotted Doc Mercy with a critical hit from a Jakobs sniple rifle at level 12 using Deception.

But probably the most important thing to remember about Borderlands 2 is the emphasis they put on the increased chance of finding rare weapons with more people. My brother, my uncle and I have all played single player extensively and have beaten the playthroughs on our own; but when we combine forces, it's not only easier but also more enjoyable (not to mention the fact that we've gotten 3 Legendary Berzerker mods and a Legendary Mechromancer mod). I'm usually the kind of gamer that likes to play alone most of the time, but I'll admit that for some of the game's harder enemies, having a friend or two makes a WORLD of difference.

[sub][sub][sub]But I can still beat Pyro Pete the Invincible solo with my Siren AND Commando![/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Something Amyss]

What class are you playing?

I played as the Gunzerker and had no problems burning through enemies, only rarely dying.
Last time I heard, the Assasin class was complete garbage and was never patched, so people just played the other 3 classes.
Also, Maya doesn't seem very strong either. You get 1 single target crowd control in a game where you fight dozens of enemies at a time. Oh, and your spell can't stun bosses for more than 1 second. Yea, I think I'll pass.

Basically you're either bad luck with the loot drops, or you're playing an underpowered class.

Maya is beastly most of the time.

Loot drops can be pretty pitiful, though. I got dropped a few times even in the first playthrough simply because I wasn't getting useful gear to actually benefit me. It sucks when your best weapons are half out of ammo without taking out a single enemy. But that's not Maya-specific. My Axton's been worse off. Thankfully, he's got a turret.

 

[Uriain]

I Am going through on my second play through, and I do not really see this issue. I am playing the Gunzerker, so maybe the class I am has partly to do with how well I am doing, but even just single gunning things down with a decent spread of grenades allows me to move fairly quickly through groups of enemies.

The only big thing I have noticed is that I am hitting the store more often for grenades and rocket ammo.

 

[Palademon]

This is a common complaint about the series as a whole.

I agree about Borderlands 2 being hard. For me it has random difficulty spikes. But for others it was no problem.
I'm someone who got through the first game fine when others complain you needed multiplayer for it.

 

[Shockolate]

I don't mind hard mode. Then again, I play Zer0 and specialise in rapid crit sniping, so with my high damage output and "Get out of jail" free ability, most things have been pretty easy with a little planning.

But Big Game Hunt has (so far) completely fucked me over, because every fucking humanoid enemy has a fucking mask on so I can only critical hit from behind.

Which means I have to get behind them using my stealth with a long cooldown for a shot that most likely won't kill, and wait for it ro recharge because every fucking enemy knows where you are and will never let you get behind them.

I find myself running and stealthing through every area because dealing with them is simply bullshit. They didn't "make it harder" they fucking neutered my way of playing the game.

 

[Ravinoff]

There are some serious balance issues, yeah. Rabid stalkers, I'm looking at you. And the loot in the main game kind of sucks a lot of the time. Now, once you get the DLC, the loot issues tend to disappear because the number of crates starts looking more like BL1. The downside is that the difficulty goes retarded in places in the DLC. Captain Scarlett wasn't too bad until you hit the Leviathan, but that whole pack was mediocre at best. Campaign Of Carnage only had one real spike, and that was at the first arena fight. Big Game Hunt? Whoo boy...it's ugly starting off. And don't even think of trying it with Zer0, you will get destroyed (as in, level 50 with a sniper-melee hybrid didn't even have a chance). The most common enemies don't have reliable or accessible crit locations, they're mostly melee-focused and they almost always spawn with at least one Witch Doctor (which you will learn to hate, trust me). To make things even better, Witch Doctors are 90% elemental, and the two types that aren't are even worse.

I just finished Big Game Hunt with Gaige, who I feel is about the only character with a reasonable chance of doing it and not getting torn apart. Deathtrap is an absolute lifesaver for the villages full of Savages. Might try it with Salvador soon, as much as I'd like to do it with Zer0 for the loot. Maybe if I finish Campaign of Carnage with Zer0 first, hopefully find myself some good weapons. Oh, and if you've got a Trespasser lying around? Keep it. Would make the new raid boss infinitely easier.

 

[Launcelot111]

Single player Borderlands 2 is brutal in general, I find. Playing as the Siren, I legitimately couldn't beat the warrior without being cheap (and by cheap, I mean climbing some scaffolding outside the Warrior's arena and shooting the top of his head with an acid pistol for half an hour). Now, in my second playthrough, I just barely got by the Warden, but badass psychos still take at least 10 sniper rifle criticals to kill. I respect hard games, but all in all, Borderlands 2 just seems unfair at times. I also think it's a semi-major flaw of the series that most skill trees won't start showing their greatness until you're already done with your first playthrough, as my Maya build was nigh-useless in many cases until I got the mind control power.

I have to chime in, especially where the Siren is concerned. Once I maxed out the Reaper skill and outfitted her with some sort of Class Mod that increased Reaper, she was beastly in all aspects. Even more so once I had both Ruin and Convergence learned. Also, I've spec'd her out to deal TONS of elemental damage. Most enemies don't stand a chance. However, I should note that I've never experimented with the Mind Control ability. Perhaps one day...

The beauty of mind control is that by itself, it's so-so, but when combined with the middle tree, you can get crazy damage and health regen over the extra-long duration of the mind control while your enemies are distracted hitting each other, with convergence grouping them up and subsequence kicking in if you accidentally kill your minion. It's a great build for 99 percent of the time, but against big bosses, it sadly falls apart.

 

[crimsonshrouds]

quote

quote

The character i was using when I was fighting Doc Mercy was Zero lvl 39

Skill tree sniping [5 Headshot] [8 killer] [1 bore] [5 velocity] skill tree cunning [5 fast hands] [5 fearless] [5 rising shot] [3 innervate]

I also have a siren i just gave up on playing as after getting wasted too many times.

My lvl 41 commando who is the only one i can play but it feels like i rely too heavily on dropping two turrets with phalanx shields to survive most battles

 

[Dead Seerius]

Like others have said, Borderlands 2 is definately inconsistent when it comes to difficulty. Then again, I use a Mechromancer and Deathtrap is pretty OP when it comes to crowd control.
Slavador, Gaige and Axton all seem to do alright throughout the game. I mostly see Mayas and Zer0s having trouble in the difficulty spikes.

 

[Sectan]

I feel your pain. I don't have anything else to really add. I'm finished with my second playthrough and playing singleplayer on Vault Hunter mode is really damn frustrating.

 

[bug_of_war]

Single player has always been Borderlands downfall in both the first and second game. Most missions are based around the expectation that you will be playing with at the very least 2 people, so there are missions in both 1 and 2 that will require you being 4 levels higher than the recomended level. This doesn't mean that the game is unplayable first time round single player, as evidence by everyone who played it single player and enjoyed it. Like you, I also played as Zero, can't remember the skill trees exactly but I remember relying a lot on his Deception, melee and sniping skills. First time around, I was able to do most missions (With a few exceptions) with relative ease. However, once I cam to New Game+ it was a totally different story. While most of the regular enemies are still the same, bosses, badasses and a select amount of enemies became absolute nightmares.

This stopped me from replaying the game for quite a while, as it just pissed me off that I had to be 6 levels higher than the boss to beat them. I ended up playing the game again as Axton (I believe that's the soldiers name), and that's where everything became much better. For starters, his skill trees allow him to focus on much more powerfull weaponry, while still being able to reload quickly, his turret is extremely powerfull, and his health and shield capacity just seems to be much better than Lillith's and Zero's. So, once I finished the game with Axton, I decided to give new game + a crack with him, and holy crap, it was so much better. Because of Axtone being the only one with an ability that actually makes enemies stop attacking you AND cause damage to them I was able to breeze through the levels just like I did before.

So yeah, while I will definately say Borderlands 1 and 2 really aren't single player friendly, there are ways around it, you'll just have to play as the Soldier class, which isn't bad, but is kinda annoying when you want to play as the other classes. I guess single player is the last thing that needs to be improoved, hope they look into it for Borderlands 3, because I really prefer not having to spend 80 dollars for Xbox live, and the first game for me was more a chore than a game, whilst 2 improoved most my complaints. So yeah! lets hope for better single player in the next one!